Comic livens up

World Brief

Shochiku has teamed with Hong Kong effects house Centro Digital Pictures (“Kill Bill”) for helmer Katsuhide Motoki’s “Gegege no kitaro,” a live-action feature, heavy on CG, based on an enduringly popular Japanese comicbook.

The comic, created by Shigeru Mizuki in 1954, has entertained generations of Japanese kids with the adventures of a goblin boy who moves between the human world and a realm populated by ghosts, goblins and other unearthly creatures from Japanese folklore.

“Gegege no kitaro” has been made into TV and feature-length toons, but never a live-action pic.